Lack of service delivery equals a failing city
Now I can complain that the various departments and officials are not doing their job or not affectively carrying out their duties, but many of them actually do try but are under financial constraints which is not always their own doing.
On Monday March 16 I attended the Region F Councillors Forum meeting, usually a quarterly event where Councillors in Region F (1 and 2) engage with MMC Greef (Development Planning) and MMC for Region F and officials from the various municipal entities.
What is an ongoing concern is the continuous emphasis on Region F 1 (inner city) and the “neglect” toward Region F2 (Southern suburbs). This has been a usual occurrence over the last term to the point where the Councillors from the South wonder if it is worthwhile attending these meetings. All councillors have the same gripe. There is a lack of service delivery, and there is no clear indication when and how our issues will be addressed.
Last year the Democratic Alliance supported the Capital Budget (CAPEX) as we felt it was a very good budget, but we did not support the Operational Budget (OPEX) as we felt the budget is not sufficient to carry out basic service delivery, and we were right!
In the South we are seeing a continuous decline in services, and services that take longer than the departments own turn-around times to address complaints.
The most shocking is to see how low the percentage of calls logged had been resolved. In Ward 54 a total of 210 calls logged and 210 remain unresolved. In wards in the South, there were 1844 calls logged and 1631 remain unresolved. Things get worse when you look at the whole region, where 5 165 calls were logged and 3 851 remain unresolved. That is a 25 per cent resolution in eight months.
We are in a crisis and this needs to change and fast.
Councillor Sergio Isa dos Santos, Ward 54 Councillor, 082 394 4053
